Of Gods and Games
by myao3stories
Summary: A medievalstuck with the beta trolls as gods and the ancestors as their champions, sadly unfinished.
1. Web of Light

Your name is Vriska Serket, more colloquially known as the Thief of Light, one of the twelve gods of creation of Alternia. Your domain is Light; knowledge, fortune, and luck are yours to command. Your servants move about in the land, gathering knowledge where you distribute it amongst those who have the means to understand it.

You see, the knowledge you keep are tied to webs. Everything is interconnected in some way shape or form. They are beautiful to weave, even if some are harsh truths or terrifying lies. There are those, to your chagrin, who can hide their knowledge from you.

You bring this up because it so happens that your major rival has arrived to your hive in the middle of one of your ceremonies. You choose to ignore Equius Zahhak, the Heir of Void, and continue to weave your webs. Two of your hands are constantly spreading the webs while the others read and examine them.

One of your hands lights a small incense thurible and you cease your weaving, finally turn to see him. "Zahhak… to what do I owe this unpleasant interruption? Have you finally come to give me your secrets, hmm?" You shoo your handmaidens away, little sylphs and seers to go off and divine information.

Equius gives a small bow, a decent show of respect for being in another god's realm. He spoke in a calm, cool manner betraying nary a hint of emotion, "Our esteemed leader has called a meeting. He wishes for us to choose champions to represent us in mortal affairs more than we already do."

You turn back to her webs, shaking your head. "Tell me something I do not already know. Such news has been going about the webs for months now." You pluck a nearby web to your left with a sharp twang. "In any case, I already have chosen a champion, even if she does not know it." You turn your head back as your hands move to weave.

"Surely you have noticed what has been going on in the mirthful lands to the far west?" It was a question, one he knew the answer to. You do not tempt the Bard's wrath for any of your servants and thus you have little knowledge of the area. "Our leader simply wishes to know what goes on in everyone's lands."

You cease your web weaving and put out the incense. "Very well, Equius, I shall come to this summit." You walked past him, running four of your hands down his chest as you do. You know he hates more contact with others, save for perhaps two, and it is one of the few things you can to do get under his skin.

He grits his teeth and follows you out of your hive and into the small colony you have. You briefly wonder how long it has been since you left the hive itself. You shift your headdress about to block the intense sun and take a deep breath. You watch your handmaidens and their families scurry about in their day to day lives, some younger ones looking in awe at two gods standing together.

Equius looks about the handmaidens, seeing those of higher ranks and trying to gauge your choice in a champion. You chuckle to yourself as he'll never find her.

Your little Sylph isn't even a handmaiden.

"What must I do? Shall I have my little champion at the summit with me?"

"Yes. You are expected to bring them and there they will receive their destinies." You roll your eyes at his theatrics. You might be dramatic, but sometimes he takes it a bit too far.

"Then I shall be off, my champion awaits." You run forward into the colony and leap into the air. Wings of light appear and you fly through the skies in search of a certain pirate…


	2. Bard and Witch

Your name is Cronus and you are a disgraced seadweller. You, like so many others, do not have a second name. You were supposed to go off and search for it in a journey of self discovery. Now, however, you are in shackles and in the pits forced to fight for the entertainment of the nobles.

You once believed you had the destiny to fight a great evil in the land, so you pushed yourself and achieved the highest position you could barring a quadrant with the empress. In a way, you still hold onto the hope, it continues to drive you.

Your stay in this damnable pit would have been maddening if not for a lowblood servant to tend to your "needs". Being one of the top fighters gave you access to such disgusting "perks". You weren't quite sure if the rustblood was circulated about while you were off fighting, but you made it quite clear to the others that she was yours.

Or at least as much as "yours" as you'd allow yourself.

For what it was worth, Damara was a sweet girl to others, but when you two were alone she practically became a different person. She tore off the subservient facade around you and embraced the jaded persona you'd expect from a handmaid.

The pits were a lucrative business for freemen, even some slaves such as yourself have patrons of sort. One such perk was your own block with some luxuries that reminded you of your old life sailing the seas. There were two quick knocks before Damara entered unannounced, shutting the door behind her and locking it. "Orphaner Dualscar, what a pleasure." She said in her thick, eastern accent.

You grin and shut the book you were reading. "What a pleasure, indeed." You watch her undo her hair and kick her shoes off at the door, sighing. "Did you have a rough day?"

She scoffed and moved over to a small box of cigarettes. "Some idiot thought I was a prostitute." She took one out and lit it, taking a toke before continuing. "They had to stop me from jabbing my fucking needles into his eyes."

"What a shame. I'd have paid to see that." You set the book down and moved to her. "I should hope those are to your liking."

She let out a puff of smoke slowly. "They are. Those idiot…" She trailed off as the door was unlocked and two figures entered. They looked quite regal, the woman looked quiet eastern while the man was clearly a seadweller.

You didn't know why two esteemed looking… patrons, you supposed, entered your block, but for a moment you wished you had your blunderbuss in case they were too dangerous. The seadweller spoke first, scoffing, "So these bumbling fools are to be our fucking champions?" He rolled his eyes and quite frankly you wanted to hit him.

The woman put her hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Quite so, really. We watched their games these past few days and the passed all our little tests." She gave a warm smile to Damara and you flinched as she approached her. "My dear, you have been chosen for an extraordinary task."

Damara simply puffed smoke in her face. The woman continued to smile and she turned away. "Come, my dear, you must pack your bags! We have quite a chore ahead." Damara gave you an exasperated look before following the woman out of your block.

The door shut quietly, leaving you and the seadweller alone. Perhaps it was the instincts bred of the noble castes to be instantly aware and distrusting of their fellow caste members. You weren't sure, frankly, and you didn't care. "Since apparently you can't fucking tell who I am, I'll tell you." Your eyes narrow at the sheer arrogance. "I am Eridan fucking Ampora, Prince of Hope."

Oh.

That explains a bit.

"What did the other woman want with Damara?" You ask, tensing up a bit more. "What did you mean by champions?"

He rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "We, your fucking gods, have decided to choose champions to act in our will. Congratulations, I choose you as my underling." You snarled at that. You hated your servitude here, but serving a god seemed worse. "Don't look so fucking happy. If it were up to me, you'd have another fucking test."

"Like what?" You spat out. "I can take on any fucking trial you throw at me." You rein in your temper a bit, the facade of your nobility breaking for a moment.

"There's a beast in these disgusting pits. Go ahead and kill it." The Prince turned and opened the door forcibly. "I had hoped to kill it myself, so it's already at the arena." You couldn't help but grin. Kill a monster? What a pathetic trial.

You arrive in the armor and don your garb, in a most insulting case of how little fucks you give you wear lewd bardic clothing. Frankly, you enjoy seeing the nobles squirm under it. You enter the arena cocky and with your special blunderbuss.

The crowd gives their cheers and you soak it up. What you see ahead of you, however gives you slight pause. You don't know what or where these pit mongrels obtained a wyrm, and frankly you don't want to know.

All you know is suddenly there's an angry wyrm roaring at you and intending on killing you. "Fuck." You mutter once, charging at it. Such a brazen show of force might confuse it…

Except that's stupid. It's a wyrm, not a dragon. It's not intelligent, you half-wit. It charges at you and its gaping maw opens wide. You get a stupid, really stupid, idea.

You dive into its mouth and you can hear the hushes and gasps of the crowd. The wyrm didn't realize what happened for the precious few seconds you needed to aim your blunderbuss at what you hoped was its brain and shot.

The creature kept moving forward, its blood flowing atop you. You believe you've stunned it as it has yet to swallow you. You look where it's charging to and wish that you actually brought a knife with you.

The wyrm slams into the walls of the pit, dying, and you are thrust into its throat. Your back lands on the back of the creature's throat and you fight it to stand again.

After a few minutes of tearing yourself free, biting and tearing at the wyrm's flesh to your utter disgust, you move to the front of its mouth. You reload the blunderbuss silently, aim, and shoot the teeth, giving you a large enough gap to slip through.

Frankly, you're not even sure how any of that worked to begin with.

When you land in the pit's dusty arena, the crowd erupts in wild applause. You wave your free hand, grinning at the crowd. Your eyes scan and you see the Prince and his companion as well as Damara. The Prince looks quite unimpressed, Damara is as easy to read as ever - which is to say not at all - and the other woman is clapping.

You have a feeling you and Damara are in for quite a show in the coming days…


	3. Let's Climb That Hill

"Latula." A deep voice stirs you from your slumber and you rub your eyes. "Wake up, I think the meeting is starting." Horuss, the executioner to your legislacerator, stood in the doorway of your current abode atop a great mountain. Frankly, you'd rather continue going throughout the land and rooting out injustice, but your new patron insisted.

You roll off the nice bed they provided and rubbed the side of your head. Horuss laughed a bit and you shot him a glare. "I'm sorry, but… your eyes are a tad bloodshot. Perhaps 'Redglare' is a tad misleading?" You two were the first of the champions to arrive and have had nothing to do for weeks. So you went a bit overboard with the alcohol…

You fumble your shades on and stand to your feet. "What do you think about the others? I know you spied on them while they arrived." He was always the spotter between the two of you, comes with being an archer you supposed.

He turned his back as you got dressed and gave a small shrug. "Some of them look… interesting. One of them is even the Empress herself." What an honor. You'd spit, but you'd rather not dirty the floors. "I believe I even saw Mindfang out there…" Oh, now it's getting interesting. "Among so many other… unsavory figures out there."

You slip your teal jacket on and grab your sword cane. "It's going to be an interesting time here, I see." You pat him on the shoulder as you pass and he follows behind you. "So many great people here, yet two lawbringers are sent as well?"

"Someone has to watch them." He said calmly, betraying as little as emotion as he always did. "All that 'power' they're supposed to give us? It's going to be frightening if they abuse it." You know he's right. Especially if some of them are as important as the Empress…

"I still don't quite know what we're doing." You admit quietly. For all their talk and theatrics, the gods seemed tight-lipped about everything. Horuss placed his hand on your shoulder as you two entered a large amphitheatre. To your complete and total surprise, you are the last two to enter.

You are not normally one to be in total awe, but seeing all twelve gods in one place was… Exhilarating, to say the least. They were gathered in order of the hemospectrum, the Maid of Time on the far left and ending with the Witch of Life. They look simply, well, divine, for lack of a better word.

"Oh good," Said the Knight of Blood in the sort of center, rolling his eyes. "Now that the lazier of the champions has finally arrived, we can get this train wreck started." He stepped forward, eyeing you all and you wish you could see what he did. Horuss's shoulders obscured your right view and your left is obscured by a large mass of hair.

—

So you become Karkat Vantas instead, and my… you… they look like total idiots. "Now then, we've chosen you fucking people to represent us in mortal affairs. For the most part we're not able to intrude upon every square inch of the muck you all go through every day." You resist the urge to rub your eyes as some of the mortals sigh and groan.

"Frankly, I wouldn't have chosen half of you-" You point a finger at Kankri in particular. "Especially you, you dimwitted loudmouthed-"

"For crying out loud, Karkles, you're going off on a tangent!" Terezi, you swear to you… "Just tell them in plain words what's going on!" She cackles and your eye seemingly twitches for a moment.

"God damn it, Terezi…" You mutter and compose yourself. "Look, the point is we've chosen you assholes to act as our eyes on the ground while we hold a commune here. For all intents and purposes you are going to be us. Congratu-fucking-lations. Go talk with your patrons…"

You see some of them looking positively ecstatic at that thought. Especially your little protege. You rub your face as the crowd disperses and he approaches you. He wasn't, you supposed, necessarily terrible… he was just far too idealistic for his own good.

He approached and bowed dramatically, his robes billowing as he did. You picked him up in your temple, mainly to save everyone else from his preaching. You desperately wish that sometimes he wasn't your Seer in a capital sense. "Your most gracious host-"

"Oh your god, shut it." He dutifully closes his mouth and watches you. "Okay, okay… let's get this over with then…" You explain to him the nuances of how to essentially be you. It's all so very interesting, but you seem to be straining to remain you.

—

Because you're Latula again with Horuss after everything had been explained to you two. Your patron is a pretty cool woman, if a bit… well, she cackles a lot. Not to mention she licked you to "get a look" at you. Horuss explained that he and Equius hit it off fairly well, mostly…

You and he planned on simply enjoying a night together for a bit, but then Karkat's little pupil entered the block rather unannounced. "I do sorry for intruding, however, the rest of us were all meeting each other and enjoying a meal together and I wished to extend the same offer to yourselves."

Horuss shrugged. "I wouldn't mind, but it's up to Redglare here." You and Horuss agreed to use your pseudonyms around the others, at least for now.

Underneath your shades you gave a small glare at Kankri. It wasn't against him, really, you just didn't want to be shoehorned into eating at the same table as vagabonds and thieves. "Fine, we might as well…" Kankri looked positively excited and he grabbed both your hands, dragging you two along.

"That is simply fantastic, truly! It will be enjoyable to speak of my thoughts and ideals to someone other than the lovely olive disciple, oh you two will-"

Let's leave them alone for now, it seems like they're going to have quite a bit of talking to do.


End file.
